Freed Chibok Schoolgirls Return to Their Families for the Holidays

The 21 Chibok girls who were released by Boko Haram attend a meeting on October 19, 2016, with the Nigerian president.

Ten weeks after they were released by Boko Haram, 21 Nigerian schoolgirls were reunited with their families just in time for the holidays. According to CNN, they arrived home on Thursday after a flight from Abuja to Yola in eastern Nigeria and a six-hour road trip north to Chibok.

The girls were among hundreds kidnapped by the terrorist organization in April 2014. Boko Haram released periodic videos of the girls, who were forcibly converted to Islam and kept in captivity, sometimes going for long periods of time without food. “For one month and 10 days we stayed without food,” one girl, Glory Dama, told CNN. “I narrowly escaped a bomb blast in the forest. I did not know that a day like this will come, that we will be dancing and giving thanks to God among people.”